Board 8 > transience's top 100 games -- 2020 edition.

(+) Yeah! (+)

So XBCX is basically the only reason anyone would need to own a WiiU at this point

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Did you play Outer Wilds this year?

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no, but I was looking at videos of it yesterday since I've been hearing so much about it lately. like most people, I haven't been able to keep that and outer worlds separate to the point that I didn't even know what outer wilds was.

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I have so many games on the WiiU that I need to get back to and at the top of that list is XCX. I really enjoyed that game, I just can't bring myself to hook my WiiU back up

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its really weird now since the miiverse no longer exists. it pops all sorts of notifications telling you that youre offline. x is almost definitely a legacy game at this point since it kinda needs a dual screen setup and the passive online is missing.

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It took me a while to get used to Majora's mechanics, but I really enjoyed it as an experience. I'm not a huge Zelda fan, of course, so it's usually when the series deviates from the norm that I enjoy it most.

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hell yeah X

By far the best open world of all time (though I wouldn't call it the best open world game or anything). No other game managed to make exploration so fun. Flying with your Skell for the first time is my favorite moment of the generation.
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Bad opinion alert:

X is my favorite Xenoblade game.

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I still need to play Xenoblade one of these days.

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I played Hollow Knight early this year, and really really liked it. A lot of those "like it or hate it" things were right up my alley and did add to the game in ways I wanted. I understand where they would bother other players, though. I did get annoyed at the end when I tried to re-explore to find missed things, because the map is total garbage for that.

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yeah, a lot of people really love Hollow Knight. you know how everyone has those one or two games that irrationally bugs them because they get overhyped? that's me with Hollow Knight because I love me a good metroidvania and I just don't think it's on that level. it's good, but it's not better than Super Metroid good and I see that sentiment all the time.

(speaking of X, another one like that for me is Xenoblade 2. Hollow Knight is at least a good game. I think XB2 is kinda bad.)

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88.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbfO0oGXXP0

2015
Mobile

Monument Valley is a light puzzler that rarely challenges you, and thats a good thing.

This game intelligently meshes minimalist art, the clockwork of a level that unfolds as you progress, and ambient soundscapes to great effect. The art and the feel of this game is really strong, especially for a mobile game. It looks so cool and the levels unwind in such cool ways. Even if you know the solutions, standing on the switches and watching the minimalism play out is always a satisfying experience that works super well on mobile devices.


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87.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U5gnCG0AUI

1989
NES, GBC, many others

The original JRPG is exceedingly simple, but its got a ton of charm to it. Wandering around the overworld and getting slowly more powerful has a strange pull over me, even if there isnt a whole lot to it.

Theres a feeling of accomplishment that you get for being able to take on a new monster in this game. Monsters are the single most memorable aspect of DQ and these ~20 designs are as classic as you get.

Im a NES RPG player to the death but NES DW1 is too grindy even for me. Fortunately, theres the GBC version that cuts the leveling tables in half and makes this game tolerable to a modern age. Its still archaic, but theres a charm to the anachronism that people of my age can appreciate. Im guessing younger folks cant, and thats okay.

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majora's mask is so good!

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Dragon Warrior 1+2 on the GBC was great back in the day.

Hollow Knight could have been SO good but honestly exploring the map for extras kinda sucked at times. It took too long to get around.

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86.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCRhZVA5nQc

1990
NES, many others

Ill just say it: this game isnt very good!

MM3 suffers from nigh-unplayable slowdown if theres more than 2 or 3 enemies on the screen. The game balance is really off, with some levels and bosses being a pushover and some being pretty tough. All of them are somehow harder than the end of the game where the game just gifts you energy tanks every couple of screens for no real reason.

But MM3 has a fun factor to it thats kind of undefinable. The music or the levels or, I dont know, something makes this game really work. Its such a breezy playthrough thats really easy to come back to. Its not a good game, but its a fun one, and I play it all the time.

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transience posted...

MM3 suffers from nigh-unplayable slowdown if theres more than 2 or 3 enemies on the screen.

Get the legacy collection on switch!

MM3 and 2 are the only truly great NES MM games imo.

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I have it! also the NES cart!

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85.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78FE5koTst8

2005
DS

Dawn is my favourite of the traditional Symphony-likes, by which I mean one big interconnected maze-y castle. It checks every box that you want out of those games: exploration, fun combat, good monster variety, tons of equippable abilities, etc. Its pretty much the classic metroidvania, one that sets the standards for the rest of the genre.

Unfortunately it also has other stuff tacked on that makes it less appealing. The most obvious extraneous feature here is the sealing of bosses, a goofy touchscreen gimmick that seems even more unnecessary 15 years after the fact, and it felt unnecessary in 2005. Seals get all of the attention, but theres also totally unnecessary stuff like breaking ice with a touchscreen thats equally dumb.

That stuff is relatively harmless though. Getting the good ending (and seeing the last ~30% of the game) can be very grindy if youre unlucky because you have to get specific monster souls in order to even fight the correct bosses. Dawn has a really good pace to it and you can move through the map pretty quick. Drawing on a touch screen is whatever, but having to loop back across the game to get the correct souls sucks.

It especially sucks because this game is kind of amazing. When you get moving on it, its really hard to put down. The soul system really is fun to play around with and the game has a good compliment of bosses. Every bad aspect is totally forgivable with enough time and patience, but the drawbacks are enough to keep me from putting it much higher than this.

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Bloodstained the greatest of the SotN-likes.
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I really didn't like what I played of Bloodstained but I hear that it gets real crazy later on so I might need to go back. it's on game pass so I can maybe sidestep the awful Switch version which I have and feels borderline unplayable.

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I played the PC version of Bloodstained and enjoyed it a lot. The only SotN-like game I consider to be on par with...well, SotN. Dawn of Sorrow is pretty cool though.

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84.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StXRi5zPPjk

2017
PS4, XB1, PC

I have a lot of feelings -- including some fairly negative ones -- about Nier: Automata. I could ramble for a while about them but this isnt really the right place for that. Id be diving into spoilers abound and honestly, the player is better off just not knowing anything about this games narrative.

What I *do* really like about Automata is the way it plays with structure. The game parses out information to the player in a very deliberate way over several playthroughs. I actually think your first playthrough is the worst part of the game which is a weird thing to say. The main character from your first playthrough, the most popular one, probably isnt even the main character of the game. Its fascinating to see the ways in which the game plays with expectations and preconceptions, and it makes you want to keep playing just to see how it can pull the rug out from under you.

Those structural layers is what makes Automata really good. By the time you get through your third playthrough -- yeah, its mandatory that you see it through -- this game gets legitimately awesome. It just takes so much investment to get to the good stuff. Automata has a killer atmosphere thanks in large part to top tier sound design, but sometimes the game design side of things lets it down a little bit.

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transience posted...

87.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U5gnCG0AUI

1989
NES, GBC, many others

The original JRPG is exceedingly simple, but its got a ton of charm to it. Wandering around the overworld and getting slowly more powerful has a strange pull over me, even if there isnt a whole lot to it.

Theres a feeling of accomplishment that you get for being able to take on a new monster in this game. Monsters are the single most memorable aspect of DQ and these ~20 designs are as classic as you get.

Im a NES RPG player to the death but NES DW1 is too grindy even for me. Fortunately, theres the GBC version that cuts the leveling tables in half and makes this game tolerable to a modern age. Its still archaic, but theres a charm to the anachronism that people of my age can appreciate. Im guessing younger folks cant, and thats okay.

This is a perfect write up for this game, though you could argue the DQ theme for most memorable thing. Glad to see it on here!

Surprised to see Hollow Knight so low as a fan of the genre. The map system I thought was pretty cool and a breath of fresh air. The pages he leaves behind as bread crumbs are fun, and I think in general having a hunt for a map of each new area was cool. Sure it might be late into an area sometimes but I think that adds to the isolation and the feeling of being lost and alone. You never know for sure if going left or going right is the right way, there really arent many small rooms like the map rooms in Super Metroid.

The other thing, about world transversal and movement upgrades I get though, probably the only weak point of the game for me. Going back to old areas, you didnt get through them much quicker with movement upgrades. Most of the upgrades would allow you to unlock areas that you couldnt get to before and that was that (ori does a better job of this, but I thought it was weird that they give you double jump really early but then scale back the screen so that it doesnt make too much of a difference, curious to hear thoughts on that).

Look forward to this topic every year! You should look into freelance stuff

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oh, I just meant DW1 only, not the whole series. the classic dq themes are definitely the most memorable part of the series if you take it as a whole.

interesting that you bring up ori since I see ori vs. hollow knight as fundamental opposites in terms of design within the same genre. both are hard 'vanias but one really prioritizes combat over traversal while the other almost completely neglects combat and lets you fly like the wind. I obviously fall into the latter camp.

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transience posted...

oh, I just meant DW1 only, not the whole series. the classic dq themes are definitely the most memorable part of the series if you take it as a whole.

interesting that you bring up ori since I see ori vs. hollow knight as fundamental opposites in terms of design within the same genre. both are hard 'vanias but one really prioritizes combat over traversal while the other almost completely neglects combat and lets you fly like the wind. I obviously fall into the latter camp.

yeah. My main thing against Ori is the combat. I fall into your camp too, though. The platforming is a lot more fun in ori for sure. The fact that there was no enemy scaling, or better yet dmg upgrades in ori made the combat worse for me and made it more of a hassle to explore new areas

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there are damage upgrades in Ori but they're not totally obvious. for example, a ground pound anywhere near an enemy does a lot of damage and can be chained. bashing shots back at the enemy hurts, or just bashing them into spikes or off the board entirely is another way. I never use the charge flame but there's that too. the lack of a melee attack doesn't really bother me because it just removes the busywork of shooting enemies precisely, and avoiding shots later in the game lets me use my great movement abilities which I really enjoy.

anyway, if you want direct damage, I would point you to Ori 2, in stores March 11th 2020. can't wait.

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Yesss ori 2! I finally got to play ori on switch, never had an Xbox or PC and loved it so much.

also hollow knight 2 XD

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Automata is a lot of fun. I still prefer the original as an overall experience. I honestly think the story beats in Automata are a bit more predictable if you've played the original. Route C is amazing, but there's just something special about the first one that the sequel doesn't quite capture. A1 is the best though.

Also, I started playing Ori the other day, but I haven't gotten far yet.

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i have a lot of feelings about level design in mario games but i'll just tag this list and silently read everything instead lmao

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Glad you at least (sort of) came around on Automata.

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i watched one of my roommates play nier automata (at times) and though the story seemed pretty neat it never caught my interest as far as being a game i wanted to play

i think as i get old i am just particularly particular about my game interests

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83.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LDzO4-GC_k

We Love Katamari was the very short period between proof that the Katamari concept worked and was great, and before it all felt rehashed and same-y. The levels pop here, especially the final one where you roll up the King, and the controls actually work, unlike the first game.

Even today, I get a real kick out of rolling up the world. I would love to see someone take a real, honest shot at Katamari again given how far the open world concept has come since 2004-2005, but I also kind of like how Katamari exists as part of an era. Play Katamari and you can feel the mid-2000s loud and clear. It just feels right belonging to that pre-indie boom time when games like this just didnt exist. Katamari has inspired countless games, things like Tokyo Jungle and Donut County and even the Goose Game, and thats pretty cool to see the lineage.


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^ and with this entry, I'm on board. Tag.
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82.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1MXUZC2_E

1992
SNES

LTTP is one of gamings smoothest progression curves. This is one of the easiest games to like in the world. Im pretty sure LTTP has the highest approval rating of any Zelda game because its just so damn easy to play.

Easy doesnt mean that the game is for babies though. LTTP strikes the balance between easy and hard, between overworld and dungeon, and even between light and dark world.

On the other hand, I don't find it to be super interesting. Its very easy to pick up and play but it rarely excites me. Early Nintendo SNES games like Mario World and LTTP just dont move the needle for me all that much - but its hard to deny the quality. I can pick this up and find it boring if I only play it for a few minutes, but if I let myself get taken in, I can lose hours.

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too low

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Late to this but some comments:

Majora's Mask is such a great twist on the normal Zelda formula, definitely. I wish we could get another like it but I'm almost not sure that's possible. Breath of the Wild weirdly feels the closest the series has come since even though on the face of it they're nothing alike. Think you're right on that it's that both eschew the usual handholding and guiderails the series provides in favor of just letting the player explore and experiment.

Xenoblade X is so good. Dammit, Nintendo needs to figure how to port this to Switch even though I know it'll be tough(er) because of the dual-screen stuff and so on. That "The highlights of this game are usually trying to sneak in and plant a probe so you can see more of the map." is way too true. Also there damn well better be an X2 they can't leave us hanging like that.

Also since Xenoblade 2 came up somewhat in relation to it, did you ever play Torna? For all the flaws and issues XB2 has (and it has them!) Torna feels like the game it should have been. Legit GOTY contender IMO. Both Torna and X are top-tier. Along with XS3 they'd make up my Top 3 Xeno games.

speaking of goty contenders, Nier Automata another one. Love this game and even though some spots, generally in the beginning, can feel a bit slow or paced not that great when this game gets going... damn. The beginning of Route C may well comprise of what I think is the greatest sequence in gaming along with sequences like the end of XS3 Disc 1.


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I havent played Torna yet. dlc just never goes on sale, Nintendo especially. I always hear how good Torna is but like, I also hear people praise Xenoblade 2 so Im a bit skeptical. in a way I just want to let that game die and hope their next is a better all around effort.

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great list so far, even though there are a number of games that so far that I know would already be top 10 in mine

81.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8GaQekLkA

2014
PC, PS4, XB1

Lethal League is basically competitive racquetball reimagined as a pseudo-fighting game. This game is super accessible. The controls are simple and the learning curve is maybe five minutes until you get down every basic skill you can do.

Its the speed that makes Lethal League tick. Get a few hits in and the ball gets to impossible speeds. Trying to hit the ball feels like pure luck when its moving a million miles an hour, but after a while you learn to deal with it surprisingly well.

Theres no game that can produce instant adrenaline quite like Lethal League. This game was made for hype moments and its a killer couch co-op game. It also works well with online multiplayer if youve got friends that want to jump in.

Theres a sequel to this that came out in 2019. I only played the demo but I wasnt as big of a fan because you have a life meter and can survive a hit in the early goings of a round. Thats not pure enough for me. Give me the basic version that punishes you hard if you screw up.

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80.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2PhdVwBkto

2014
PC

The original HMH was a lot more fresh, but HMH2 is straight up better in every aspect. Its deeper, the scenarios are more fun and theres an overworld that ties things together in a cool way.

Its also just the hero 30 mode here, just 30 seconds of the world about to end over and over and over again. This is a good thing because the other modes of HMH1 werent very fun.

But on the other hand, they somehow managed to make a game about saving the world in 30 seconds a full 20 hours long. This game should be 6-8 hours long, not 20, and the game suffers for it having so much padding. Its good that theres lots of missions but after a while you just get game fatigue.

One last note: this games soundtrack is the craziest thing ever put together. Its a whos who of notable japanese composers. MItsuda, Shimomura, Sakuraba, Hirota, Hamauzu, Iwata, Naruke, and the list goes on. Youd expect some major game to get this kind of treatment and not a quirky little joke RPG. But here we are!

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I liked Xenoblade 2 better than Torna because of all the little systems (raising all the blades was super addictive), but Torna is undoubtedly the better game in general. The story's far tighter, the main cast is way better, the gameplay is streamlined (in a good way), and it doesn't feel like it overstays its welcome. The new environments are great, too. It's neat playing a 30 hour Xenoblade.
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I need the check out Lethal League ! Thank you sir!

I have a few friend who played Xenoblade 2. All he did was complain about it, then go back to playing it. Gacha is scary.

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LadyVyxx posted...

I need the check out Lethal League ! Thank you sir!

theres demos for the sequel (lethal league blaze) on I think most platforms. definitely on switch anyway. itll give you an idea.

KamikazePotato posted...

I have a few friend who played Xenoblade 2. All he did was complain about it, then go back to playing it. Gacha is scary.

gacha honestly isnt in the top 3 problems that game has, nor is it the main reason people keep going back. its just like Xenoblade or X, its addicting to grow your guys.

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Ehh Torna improves some things (way better main character, better story, no gacha) but then has other really questionable decisions like padding out the length of the game by artificially locking progress behind completing most of the fetch quests

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Frustration with the gacha is also all they talked about in regards to the game! That and the bad plot. I don't think I heard a single positive thing about the game from him and he put around 40 hours into it. He was the same way with Xenoblade X though, so maybe the guy just can't stop playing JRPGs even if he doesn't like them.

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maybe I shouldn't play Xenoblade

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Nah you should

XB2 is more questionable (gameplay is very fun but there were a lot of other bad decisions)

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Don't play XB2 if you have a healthy respect for women.

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